New Khitai Weapon

[bjorntfh]

Here's something that I've been trying to stat out for Conan, since it is fitting to the time period (the original versions were made about 2000 BC in China.)


Exotic Weapon:
Cho-Ko-Nu (repeater Crossbow)
Cost: 125 Sp
Damage: 1d4+ 1/2 Str
Critical: x2
AP: 2+Str
Range: 40 ft
Hardness: 6
Hitpoints: 5
Weight: 4 lbs

Special:
Ammo Clip: the Cho-Ko-Nu holds 20 bolts in its hopper. Reloading is a full round action that provokes attacks of opportunity.
Rapid Fire: The Cho-Ko-Nu is designed for multiple weaker shots rather than a single powerful hit. For every attack the wielder makes he may fire up to 4 shots divided however he likes. Sneak attack and percision damage applies only to the first hit of any volley. Resolve each critical hit seperately.
Muscle Powered: Since the Cho-Ko-Nu is fired using a lever handle instead of a winch you add half your stength modifier to your damage. you add your whole strength modifier to the AP of the weapon.
Inaccurate: The Cho-Ko-Nu is designed to spray bolts at massed targets and is aimed from the hip rather than from the shoulder; you cannot use Ranged Weapon Finesse with it. It always has a -2 penalty to hit, this penalty cannot be reduced by Versatility.

Cho-Ko-Nu Bolts:
Cost: 1 Sp/20
Weight: 1 lb/20

 

[Foxworthy]

First off take the stength bonus damage. While I understand that you need to pull the lever back and pulling the level back could make the string faster standard crossbows don't have a winch and are hand pulled and they don't get a strength bonus. Though if you let the building a bow witha str bonus rules for crossbows then i can see you allow the repeater to be built with a str bonus optional.

Second up the dmage to at least 1d6 though i would say 1d8. Make it on par with a hunting bow.

Remove the rapis fire ability. The ability to be able to fire the crossbow a number of times equal to your base attack is an advantage enough and it's not too much faster than a bow. Of course the rpaid shot feat would still apply.

Again no str to AP and an AP of 2 seems good.

The range seems fine as well.

I'd take away the penatly for hitting with it as someone with an EWP in it's use should be use to firing it from the hip.

Hope this helps.

 

[bjorntfh]

Actually it's a real historical weapon with a slow RoF of 2 bolts/second. A trained user can easily empty the 20 bolt hopper in under 6 seconds. The weapon is used like a pair of shears, you pump one hand up and down while using the other as a brace. The weapon is closer to a braced sling than a western crossbow in many respects, which is why I gave it half strength, you can't get all your strength into the action.

The real problem was the weapon couldn't effectively penetrate armor (why I put the AP at 2+ str, at bet you're getting through maybe scal with that.) Setting the AP to 2 means that you literally cannot damage someone wearing a leather vest, something I wanted to avoid.

 

[Foxworthy]

Actually it's a real historical weapon with a slow RoF of 2 bolts/second. A trained user can easily empty the 20 bolt hopper in under 6 seconds. The weapon is used like a pair of shears, you pump one hand up and down while using the other as a brace. The weapon is closer to a braced sling than a western crossbow in many respects, which is why I gave it half strength, you can't get all your strength into the action.

The real problem was the weapon couldn't effectively penetrate armor (why I put the AP at 2+ str, at bet you're getting through maybe scal with that.) Setting the AP to 2 means that you literally cannot damage someone wearing a leather vest, something I wanted to avoid.

I still don't aggre on the strength thing. It's still mechanical like a crossbow.

Well I let the AP just be two cause a hunting bow is only one. From the descrption of the repeating crossbow I read it sad the user had to get lucky to get past an armored foe. Which combined with me upping the damage made sense. And again if youa llow it to be built with a str rating then the AP will go up.

As for the rate of fire... I read it could fire ten arrows in seconds. which would be twenty arrows in 30 seconds or 4 arrows in a combat round. Which falls in line with a high level character iterative attacks and rapid shot.

 

[FailedSpotCheck]

What is your source for this Chinese word.
The only word I know for crossbow is "U+93FE" (SAN3 or XIAN4)

http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=93FE&useutf8=false

 

[Foxworthy]

What is your source for this Chinese word.
The only word I know for crossbow is "U+93FE" (SAN3 or XIAN4)

http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=93FE&useutf8=false

The source of Cho-Ku-nu?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow

That mentions it, but I know it from the 2nd Edition AD&D Ninja's handbook. I haven't done much research into it past that.

 

[bjorntfh]

The website is here:

http://www.arco-iris.com/George/chu-ko-nu.htm

And we've been tweaking it. We found in my game that 4 shots at 1d4 literally NEVER damaged anything. Leather armor totally negates the weapon.

We ended up making it 1d6+str, AP 1+str, 2 shots per attack.

It still has a hard time hurting anyone in armor, but it does do some damage now. We also ruled you can't use precise shot, Ranged Finesse or any precision based abilities with it.

 

[FailedSpotCheck]

Thanks for the info.

 

[bjorntfh]

The weapon is still amazingly weak for anything but two uses: you use contact poison on the bolts (coat an entire clip!) or you're targeting unarmored opponents. Otherwise, just don't bother using it. Leather gives it massive troubles.